Scarborough and Whitby MP 'disappointed' by colleagues' decision to leave Conservative party

Martina Moscariello

The MP for Scarborough and Whitby has said he is 'disappointed' by the decision of three of his colleagues to leave the Conservative party.

Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston quit the party yesterday to join the new Independent group formed by eight former Labour MPs.

The MPs blamed the Government's handling of Brexit for their decision to join the breakaway group.

MP Robert Goodwill, who has always been supportive of the Prime Minister's approach towards Brexit said: "I'm disappointed that they've left but one thing that all the 11 independent MPs have in common is that they do not want Britain to leave the EU and for the three former Conservative MPs, all the work that they've done in the past few months has been aimed at keeping Britain in the EU, ignoring the result of the referendum.

"In Scarborough and Whitby 66% voted to leave which is why I've been supporting Brexit."

He added: "A lot of us talk about the negative impact of a no deal Brexit, well the only way to prevent that is to vote for a deal. I voted for the Prime Minister's deal but some colleagues that have now joined the Independent group have always voted against it."